The Missionary Spirit of Gregory the Great as Evidenced by His Interest in the Angles

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AbstractThe purpose of this study is to examine the missionary spirit of Gregory the Great in the light of his objectives, his interest, his plans, and the execution of his designs for the conversion of the Angles. This will be the vantage point throughout the work since the Pope’s apostolic ardour should be measured by the unified efforts of his heart, soul, and hands rather than by the ostensible success which his venture achieved.

This study admits of no proposal to contest Gregory’s missionary spirit—for has he not been acknowledged as the "apostle" of the English since Bede who wrote less than a century after the lifetime of the great Pontiff? Has not the whole of Christendom for fourteen centuries past credited him with the conversion of the English? Whenever the story, of this great undertaking is told, does not Gregory hold the place of honor? Rather than his personal envoys, Augustine and the forty monks, is Gregory described by the Roman Martyrology as he "who brought the English to the true Faith. "